Iconic Therapeutics, Inc. Appoints Brandon Smith Chief Operating Officer

Leadership Team Strengthened for Development and Partnering

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Iconic Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to translating knowledge of Tissue Factor biology into new therapeutics for retinal disease and cancer, announced the appointment of Brandon Smith as Chief Operating Officer. He joins Iconic from Impax Laboratories, Inc., where he served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy. Brandon brings to Iconic over 15 years of experience in public biotechnology companies, and has led a wide range of business and corporate development functions.

Brandon adds to the leadership team wide-ranging experience in licensing, alliance management, deal integration and portfolio management. Prior to Impax, he was an Executive Director at Amgen, Inc. where he led the business case team for Amgen’s entry into biosimilars and subsequently helped form the separate biosimilars business unit responsible for developing and partnering multiple active biosimilars programs in addition to holding positions of increasing responsibility in Operations, Corporate Strategy, and M&A. He has also been a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group and Production Engineer and Plant Supervisor at BASF Corporation. He received a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the McCombs Graduate School of Business.

“Brandon`s expertise complements our world-class group of senior leaders in research, manufacturing and clinical development. As we move into late-stage development following our successful Phase 2a study in Wet AMD with our lead asset ICON-1 and progress our oncology and research programs targeting Tissue Factor, his strategic insight and business partnering and commercialization expertise will be invaluable to us,” said William Greene, M.D., Chief Executive Officer.

Dr. Greene further noted, “Iconic has the leadership team in place to advance our programs into and through all stages of development. Brandon will lead strategic alliance discussions for us on ICON-1 while Dr. Gabriela Burian, MD MPH, our committed Chief Medical Officer, continues to drive the clinical, regulatory and registrational strategy for Iconic’s lead program. With the encouraging results of our Phase 2a trial evaluating ICON-1 in Wet AMD, we are even more confident in the potential of our drug candidate to be truly disease-modifying and to provide more durable benefit in retinal disease. We anticipate a global program designed to address the significant unmet needs in the vision arena.”

About AMD

Age-related Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the U.S. and other industrialized countries, affecting up to 200 million people worldwide. The ultimate goal of AMD treatment is to preserve vision and prevent blindness. For over a decade, anti-VEGF agents have been the standard of care, providing good initial responses with rapid reduction of retinal thickness and, in up to 40% of patients, gains in vision. However, treatment with anti-VEGF agents alone may not provide durable outcomes. For many patients, vision gains do not appear to be sustainable and thus may not prevent progression to blindness in the long run. There is an unmet need for an agent that can modify the underlying progression of the disease process itself.

About Iconic Therapeutics

Iconic Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to translating an understanding of the role of Tissue Factor biology to new therapeutics for retinal disease and cancer. The company’s lead product candidate, ICON-1, is a novel fusion protein designed to address the underlying cause of vision loss in neovascular AMD. By targeting inflammation and angiogenesis together, ICON-1 may potentially alter the course of this disease. The company is investigating the ICON family of proteins in cancer and has initiated a research program in solid tumors. Please visit www.iconictherapeutics.com for additional information.